Wednesday 23 November 2011 08.21 EST
First published on Wednesday 23 November 2011 08.21 EST

American science fiction author Anne McCaffrey, who created the hugely popular Pern series of books about the symbiotic relationship between humans and dragons, died at home in Ireland on Monday, aged 85.

McCaffrey, who went on to publish almost 100 books, began her career in 1967 with Restoree, which she described as a "jab" at the way women were portrayed in science fiction. Later that year, she had the idea for the Dragonriders of Pern series, in which dragons and humans join forces to defend their planet from the deadly "thread" which falls from space and which, from 1967's Weyr Search to the most recent Dragon's Time, published this summer, became a smash hit.

"I suddenly wondered, 'what if dragons were the good guys?' Then I had to develop a planet which needed a renewable airforce against some unknown menace and came up with Pern, dragons, Thread and humans who impressed a hatchling in a lifelong symbiotic relationship," McCaffrey wrote on her website. "Rather wonderful to have an intelligent partner that loves you unconditionally. Who wouldn't like a 40ft telepathic dragon as their best friend? By the time my (then) children got home from school, I knew how it would all start: 'Lessa woke, cold.' I finished Weyr Search by summer."

The first woman to win a Hugo award and a Nebula award, McCaffrey was named a grand master of science fiction in 2005. Living in Wicklow County, Ireland, at the home she designed herself, Dragonhold-Underhill ("because she had to dig out a hill on her farm to build it"), the author was still answering letters from her fans on her website this month. In August, her son Todd, who has authored and co-authored Pern novels since 2003, relayed her disappointment at having to cancel her appearance at a Pern convention due to ill health. "Mum very specifically asked me to apologise to those who had hoped to see her there, saying: 'Sorry that old age came up and bit me on the a**'," he wrote.

Bestselling fantasy author Stephen Hunt paid tribute to her legacy: "All genres have their grand old dames… crime fiction still has PD James, romance had Barbara Cartland. In the fantasy and science fiction field, we were lucky indeed to have Anna McCaffrey.

"She was too modest to regard them as classics, but classics of the genre are what they became, outlandish planet-threatening mycorrhizoid spores and all. In a genre whose audience is often stereotyped as geeky males, in which its female authors often still feel it is a boys-only club when it comes to reviews of their work and airtime, McCaffrey was up there with Robert A Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke and Jack Williamson. She'll be deeply missed."